Two studies published in late October suggest that international Right-wing populism is becoming stronger — and more united. The headline finding of Epicenter’s “Authoritarian Populism Index 2026″ was that “combined support for populist, authoritarian and extremist parties on the Left and Right” has reached a record 32.6% in Europe, with “the radical Right” the main driver.

Meanwhile, the new “Authoritarian Collaboration Index” by Action for Democracy analysed “transnational collaboration events” between “authoritarian regimes” and “authoritarian-leaning” parties globally. Examples include the agreement on small boats signed this September by Reform UK and France’s National Rally, the AfD’s overtures to Vladimir Putin’s Russia for future energy cooperation, and deepening alliances between Russia and North Korea.

The notion of a global Right-wing authoritarian network posited by these surveys has become a key part of Left-wing storytelling. A Guardian article, for example, last week linked votes taking place in Brazil, Serbia, Israel and the US as a “cluster of four pivotal elections”. The piece added: “In each contest, pro-democracy parties are in close races with current or aspiring autocrats.”

Is it true, then, that the nationalist Right is uniting in a global web of conspiracy? The answer is no, and the most revealing thing about these surveys is not their results but the assumptions behind them.

It is patently absurd for the “Authoritarian Collaboration Index” to lump together Reform and the RN with dictatorships in Russia, North Korea and the Middle East under a single theme. The “Authoritarian Populism Index” performs a similar sleight of hand and, as a result, some of its more detailed findings are truly bizarre. The Czech Republic, where I live, is apparently the joint most authoritarian-populist country in Europe, with three “authoritarian” parties in power. Readers will be relieved to know that Britain is among the very least authoritarian nations in Europe, although this state of felicity is, the authors note, threatened by the rise of Reform.

In reality, all this deeply unserious generalising is illustrative not of a global Right-wing network, but of the opposite: inherent limitations on Right-wing international collaboration. Unlike the socialist movements of the 20th century or the centrist international establishment of today, Right-wing nationalist parties do not share a belief in a universally applicable system of government, and their fragmentary beliefs and interests make attempts at collaboration problematic.

Viktor Orbán’s defeat in Hungarian elections this year was a case in point. Attempting to construct a global nationalist conservative movement was key to Orbán’s foreign policy, and all his allies — Giorgia Meloni, Alice Weidel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump and JD Vance, among others — weighed in behind him prior to the election. Yet he still lost, and it even seemed like some of those heavy-handed interventions hurt his campaign rather than helped it.

In truth, Orbán’s dream of a global nationalist Right had already been destroyed by two factors: Trump’s second term in the White House, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. European voters have fallen out of love with MAGA and Right-wing parties do not want to be seen courting Trump’s favour, any more than they want to be perceived as being on good terms with Putin.

Even within Europe, there is no ideological consistency out of which a cross-border Right-wing nationalist movement could be born. The AfD’s brand of nationalist politics contains elements — especially relating to German remembrance for the Second World War and the Holocaust — that would outrage nationalists in the UK. The Reform-RN small boats pact, meanwhile, was an unconvincing attempt to mask conflicting national interests under the flimsy pretence of international ideological unity.

As they decouple from the US on the one hand and Russia on the other, many European nationalists are realising — unlike Orbán — that the illusory comforts of a global support network detract from their focus on the nation. The Right-wing authoritarian web highlighted by these surveys is a chimera, but that won’t stop the Left talking about it.